Ancient Engineers

Here are some book suggestions.  These will be updated and added to.  From time to time, individual books might also get their own review page in the event you wish to know more.

Graham Hancock books are worth a read.  This man has done an amazing job over the years of researching and then publishing some truly excellent material.  Below is a basic bibliography of his work.

• Fingerprints of the Gods
• The Mars Mystery
• Supernatural
• Underworld
• The Sign and the Seal
• Keepers of Genesis
• Heaven's Mirror
• Talisman

Charles H. Hapgood:

•  Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings

This book discusses the various proofs and examines the ancient maps and copies of ancient maps that demonstrate that there was an ancient civilization, perhaps antedeluvian (pre-Biblical Flood) that mapped the world accurately, to include Longitude and Latitude.  Said maps also showed Antarctica with incredible detail, and ice free to an extant that was not possible until the 1960s (modern era) when sonic and seismic readings of the land mass under the ice could be made.  This means, for those who are a tad slow in their incredulity, that said Ancients mapped the Antarctic at a time when it was ice free, with modern accuracy.  This would pre-date any known civilization, and indicates that there must have been a technologically advanced civilization extant in pre-history.  This same civilization must have traveled and mapped the globe, and did so with a precision we can only now barely match!

 
Longitude:  The True Story of a Lone Genius who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

This book, by Dava Sobel, discusses the interesting tale of Englishman John Harris'  solving of the problem of longitude, and the many attempts that came before.  People today, especially people schooled by the State, but most people anywhere, have no understanding of what defines longitude on a map, or its importance.  If you don't engage in navigation, marine navigation in particular, it probably is a subject almost entirely unknown to you.  Most of us have had a basic explanation during grade school social studies, but this usually is limited to understanding that longitude (meridians) goes from pole to pole, and latitude (parallels) is defined by a concentric series of rings going around the globe, starting with the main one at the equator.

Throughout history, latitudes were fairly easy established, but longitude was a mystery, leading to incredible destruction and loss of life/property from navigation errors.  Some of the finest minds (such as Galileo) tried and failed to solve this problem (and claim the incredible rewards the leaders of sea faring nations offered as prizes to whomever could solve this problem).

John Harrison was a carpenter and self taught clock maker from Yorkshire (England).  His successful solving of the longitude puzzle did not see him getting his rewards however.  This book documents the foul play that delayed his payment by forty years as the heads of astronomical societies tried to prevent his prize.  Why?  They were of the opinion that this problem should be solved by a gentlemen (nobility) and astronomer, not the clever devices of a "common" clockmaker!

The story is fascinating.  It is a short book, full of information (and one may well find themself looking into Wikipedia for elaboration of specific, interesting, events and people).  

This book also serves to demonstrate what a difficult problem longitude is to solve (and I dare any person today to figure out how to do it without reading the specifics and finding plans from devices already made).

For those who appreciate the difficulty of the longitude problem, Charles Hapgood's expose on the rediscovered ancient maps that accurately detailed them in perfect detail, hundreds of years before John Harrison  (and were purported to come from pre-history in source, perhaps even antediluvian times) will seem even more astonishing.  To many, it conclusively demonstrates the existance of advanced civilizations with high tech achievements in prehistory.
 

Technology of the Gods:  The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients:

This book, by David Hatcher Childress, discusses the numerous ancient technologies present.  In some cases, these are entirely conventional revelations, consistent with what we generally accept about the ancients.  What startles even under these revelations is the sheer level of technological innovation extant in Ancient times.  There was incredibly sophisticated invention and engineering.  What made it different from modern times is this advanced technology, while present, was not widely understood, nor distributed, so its manufacture and use was extremely limited and in the event specific people died, their knowledge died with them.  Mechanical computers, clocks, earthquake detectors,vending machines thousands of years ago, steam engines, etc. are but a sampling of the amazing discoveries that the ancients clearly mastered more than two thousand years ago.

What amazes when it comes to this book is the detailed information given regarding technologies that existed and were described, and the remains thereof, that we cannot replicate even to this day.  Much has been made of how "we know how the Pyramids" were built when in fact, we have barely credible speculation.  In many megalithic sites, such as Baalbeck, no modern technology and no imputed ancient methods could come close to moving the 300 ton to 1500 ton and beyond individual stones.  What often happens in shows like Mythbusters and similar is a severely scaled down aspect of the design (using a one ton stone block for instance) is manipulated, and the archeologist or modern engineer blithely states "Well, they'd have done it on a larger scale."

Unfortunately, there is no simple answerwhen attempting to do this in practice when the stone would crush any log rollers, destroy any road, exceeds the load capacity many times over of the largest modern crane.  Additionally, the antiquity of ancient stone structures and enigmas like the Sphinx have been demonstrated to be beyond twelve thousand years in the past.  

Interestingly enough, this book (and others) discusses the idea that the most advanced Egyptian civilizations were the earliest dynasties, as if they were a legacy, not a social evolution.  The greatest structures, the highest sciences, the most sophisticated devices, were present in the earliest dynasties, and then degenerated successively. 

This bolsters the idea that survivors of some ancient catastrophe(s) gifted their achievements to the peoples of Egypt (perhaps the less advanced peoples of the Nile Valley, much like some European Scientists might try to rebuild civilization in the heart of Africa amongst more primitive tribes were a global catastrophe to wipe out Europe, North America, etc.).  From the time of the civilization legacy, there was chronic degeneration as it became less and less possible to preserve the few remaining artifacts, inventions, etc. of an advanced society amongst a civilization that had none of the institutional structures that are built to perpetuate such an advanced state of affairs.  In any case this is a fascinating book, full of knowledge and worth a read.  It will change the way you view the Ancients, whatever your beliefs.

Forbidden History:

This is a compilation book that discusses numerous subjects that tend to contradict the conventional views of archeology and the development of civilization.  Electric Universe Theory, Catastrophism (and its effects on human civilization), Antedeluvian societies, etc. are all discussed.  Many notables in scientific fields and in alternative archeology have contributed what are roughly article length chapters to this book.  If there is a general concensus, it is that the gradualistic view of human and earth history are wrong.  The conventional view is that we look at where we are now, and count backward in smooth, incremental steps.  The alternative view is that there have been leaps and bounds, with occasional catastrophes that have turned back the clock and knocked humanity down from previous spiritual and technological golden ages to near extinction.  Our myths, gods, and even legendary names may well have been the names of prominent pre-catastrophe leaders and nations, the meanings almost all but lost. 

Reading this book is a great primer to open your mind.  You may not take every theory presented with the same enthusiasm, but in practice, it should conclusively convince most people that the conventional view of many subjects, be they the age of the earth, dinosaur extinction, and human civilizational development are not defensible and new explorations need to be made and taught!

Atlantis, and other Lost Civilizations:

By Herbie Brennan

This is a fairly light read, but full of interesting information.  You can think of it as a "survey course" for studying the MANY proofs that human civilization and development is far greater than conventional or mainstream science and academia admit.  Worse, is the level of evidence suppression (or outright ignoring it).  This book doesn't present a single unified theory, as if the author has the answers.  What it does is present the many evidence chains demonstrating facts that the mainstream would prefer to ignore lest it upset carefully crafted theories.

Unfortunately for those who have an interest in the truth, and the advance of human knowledge, most field experts in Egyptology, Archeology, Geology, Darwinian Evolutionary Biology, and similarly grouped pursuits would prefer to hide evidence that contradicts, and in many cases smashes, the theoretical outlooks that they have built careers and reputations buying into.

Mr. Brennan does an excellent job providing a primer to those who are interested in the study of lost Atlantis or anomalies and artifacts that challenge existing world views.  If you have even a modest degree of intellectual curiousity, you can't help but find this book interesting, and quite likely a springboard for further reading and research.